To tell us why and how, Professor Peter Jaskiewicz of the University of Alberta joined Karen Vinton on the Family Business Review podcast to discuss his article “Is Nepotism Good or Bad? Types of Nepotism and Implications for Knowledge Management,” published in the latest issue of FBR and co-authored by Klaus Uhlenbruck, David B. Balkin, and Trish Reay.

“If we want companies, if we want family businesses to be sustainable in the long term across generations, it’s important to find out how they can do so, and to find out how nepotism can support or threaten sustainability,” said Professor Jaskiewicz, who also shared his findings in a recent issue of Campden Wealth.

Click here to play or download the podcast interview, or subscribe on iTunes by following this link.

Peter Jaskiewicz is an Assistant Professor in Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Alberta School of Business. His research focuses on family businesses, corporate governance, and entrepreneurial processes.

Karen L. Vinton, Ph.D., is assistant editor of FBR and a 1999 Barbara Hollander Award winner and Professor Emeritus of Business at the College of Business at Montana State University, where she founded the University’s Family Business Program. An FFI Fellow, she has served on its Board of Directors and chaired the Body of Knowledge committee.

In our opinion, the ability to quickly recognize group behavior in situ, understand how that behavior maps onto fundamental group processes, and then take appropriate action all represent critical skills for students of group dynamics. However, discussion of the development of such skills is missing from the group dynamics textbooks we reviewed … as well as from textbooks on organizational behavior …. We suggest that the recognition of group behavior in dynamic organizational settings is a specific ability that may be developed through the use of film as a pedagogical tool. In effect, this ability rests on the concept of thin slicing group behaviors—that is, the ability to recognize and correctly identify behaviors based only on a thin slice of interaction …. Existing research provides evidence that individuals trained to recognize specific human behaviors, such as those involved in negotiations, can accurately do so using only very brief thin-sliced examples of real behavior …. In this article, we suggest ways in which using multiple brief excerpts from films in rapid sequence can help students develop quick and accurate real-time recognition of group behaviors.

Read the article, “Beyond 12 Angry Men: Thin-Slicing Film to Illustrate Group Dynamics,” in the Small Group Research OnlineFirst section.

Individuals who feel as though they have been discriminated against in the workplace are less satisfied with their jobs, less likely to continue working for their current employer, and less likely to recommend their organization to others, as compared to individuals who do not believe they have been victims of employment discrimination.7 In addition, individuals who have been discriminated against are more likely to believe that their supervisors do not take a personal interest in them,8 feel burned out on the job, take less initiative, and care less about performing their tasks well.

Discrimination is also a large concern in workplaces because of the deteriorating effects it has on organizations. Not only are discrimination lawsuits costly, but accusations of discrimination damage employee morale and taints the reputation of the organization by making it unattractive to employees, customers, and partners.10 Alternatively, organizations that actively adopt diversity programs that aim to prevent workplace discrimination are more likely to have satisfied, loyal employees that speak positively about the organization with others.

Read “Discrimination Across the Sectors: A Comparison of Discrimination Trends in Private and Public Organizations” in Public Personnel Management, and click here to sign up for e-alerts so you don’t miss out on new research from PPM.

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The latest most-read articles from Business Communication Quarterly cover topics including crisis communication, workplace interpersonal skills, employee engagement and well-being, and more. The articles are free to access through the end of May using the links below. Please share and enjoy!

Sam H. DeKay
Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace: A Largely Unexplored Region
December 2012

Melinda Knight
Communicating in a Crisis
March 2013

Judith Ainsworth
Business Languages for Intercultural and International Business Communication: A Canadian Case Study
March 2013

Geraldine E. Hynes
Improving Employees’ Interpersonal Communication Competencies: A Qualitative Study
December 2012

Karl L. Smart and Richard Featheringham
Developing Effective Interpersonal Communication and Discussion Skills
September 2006

Stay updated on the latest research in the field of business communication: subscribe to BCQ’s RSS feed, and click here to receive e-alerts about new articles and issues published online before they’re in print.

The SUDAN GAME
via USC GamePipe Laboratory

A new article in Simulation & Gaming studies an avatar-based game that addresses a real policy challenge: peace in the Sudan.

The game, under development as part of a massively multiplayer online game at the University of Southern California’s GamePipe Laboratory, casts players as tribe members who can directly impact stability in an interactive model of the country:

…[W]e are proposing that intertribal hostility in Sudan can be understood as a function of differing perspectives on a variety of beliefs. To measure the stability of the country at a given point in the simulation, we calculate the average of each of the eight beliefs across the agents within each tribe. We then normalize these beliefs to be between 0 and 1, and calculate the differences between each tribe…The purpose of the Sudan model is to determine if a sequence of interventions could be carried out in Sudan to foster common beliefs among the tribes, decrease their differences, and thus increase the stability of the country as a whole.

The game has some unique attributes that should make it a valuable tool, according to Kathleen Carley of Carnegie-Mellon University, an author of the paper. “A major problem with games and with agent-based simulation is that they are very time consuming to instantiate,” Dr. Carley told Management INK. “Another major problem is that they are very difficult to repurpose for another issue.  This work shows how it is possible to link a massive multiplayer on-line game and and agent based simulation and then use readily available news data to instantiate generic characters.  This paves the way for auto-instantiation and repurposing.”

Read the article, “Games, Social Simulations, and Data—Integration for Policy Decisions: The SUDAN Game,” published by Peter Landwehr of Carnegie-Mellon University, Marc Spraragen of USC, Balki Ranganathan of USC, Kathleen M. Carley of Carnegie-Mellon University, and Michael Zyda of USC in the in the February issue of Simulation & Gaming, a symposium on simulations, games, and peace.

There are many ways to achieve victory in the NHL. Teams can win in regulation, overtime or a shootout and earn two points in the standings regardless of how victory is secured. Even when teams lose, they sometimes win — to an extent — by getting one point for falling in overtime or a shootout…

It’s a flawed system that incentivizes teams to play it safe, robbing the sport of dramatic finishes in the third period while creating artificial parity.

You can read the article written by Matt Gagne and Michael Lopez in Sports Illustrated here, and read the original research article in the Journal of Sports Economics here.

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Editor’s note: We are pleased to welcome Mikko Rönkkö of Aalto University and Joerg Evermann of Memorial University of Newfoundland, whose paper “A Critical Examination of Common Beliefs About Partial Least Squares Path Modeling” is forthcoming in Organizational Research Methods and now available in the journal’s OnlineFirst section.

Partial Least Squares path modeling (PLS) is peculiar among statistical methods. At the same time, it is popular in some management and organizational research disciplines, but almost nonexistent in others. The method also stands out in the research methods literature. While other statistical methods are constantly analyzed in specialized journals, it is difficult to find any papers about PLS in the mainstream social sciences research methods journals.

Further, most of the introductory texts on statistical methods ignore the method. Instead its users rely on introductory articles in applied journals. Most of these present PLS as a structural equation modeling method and argue that it can provide advantages over earlier methods and other structural equation modeling methods. However, many of these papers lack any link to original methodological papers while others contradict each other and the original works that developed PLS, giving the reader an incomplete and possibly confusing picture of the method.

In our paper, we review how the PLS method has been applied in leading management journals. Based on this review, we identify six frequently repeated beliefs about PLS:

1. PLS has advantages over traditional methods because it is an SEM estimator
2. PLS reduces the effect of measurement error
3. PLS can be used to validate measurement models
4. PLS can be used for testing null hypotheses about path coefficients
5. PLS has minimal requirements on sample size
6. PLS is most appropriate for exploratory or early stage research

We trace the citations to the origins of these beliefs and present what evidence – if any – has been presented to support these beliefs. Our analysis suggests that many of the beliefs can be traced back to article small number of articles in the marketing discipline where they are presented mostly without evidence. We analyze each belief and discuss why contemporary understanding of statistics leads us to conclude that these beliefs are invalid. We use a simple example model to illustrate this. We conclude that the use of PLS for statistical inference is not justified. The method may be useful for statistical prediction, which it was initially intended for, but our review of the existing studies did not find any such applications.

This paper is not intended as the end to the discussion about PLS. Instead, we wish to pursue two goals: First, to raise the awareness of lack of evidence for the usefulness of the method among its users and reviewers encountering PLS-based studies. Second, to show that there is an urgent need for more attention toward the method in the mainstream social sciences research methods literature to better understand its strengths and weaknesses.

Read “A Critical Examination of Common Beliefs About Partial Least Squares Path Modeling” in Organizational Research Methods.

Mikko Rönkkö is a doctoral candidate at Aalto University, School of Science. His research interests are in statistics and research methods, with a focus on structural equation modeling.

Joerg Evermann is an associate professor of information systems. His research interests are in statistics and research methods, with a focus on structural equation modeling.

To answer this question, authors Walter D. Davis, Clay Dibrell, and Justin B. Craig joined Karen Vinton on the Family Business Review podcast to discuss their paper, “The Effects of Goal Orientation and Client Feedback on the Adaptive Behaviors of Family Enterprise Advisors,” co-authored by Judy Green. The paper is forthcoming in Family Business Review and now available in the journal’s OnlineFirst section. Click here to play or download the podcast interview, or subscribe on iTunes by following this link.

Walter D. Davis (Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology) is an Associate Professor of Management at The University of Mississippi, where he teaches courses in advanced human resource management, strategic management, and research methods. His research interests include employee proactivity, self-management, goal orientation, and strategic human resource management. His articles have been published in journals such as Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Performance, Leadership Quarterly, and Group and Organization Management. He has served on the editorial review boards of Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research and The International Journal of Leadership Studies.

Clay Dibrell is an Associate Professor of Management at The University of Mississippi and a US Fulbright Scholar. Areas of research interest include family enterprises, innovation, and stewardship. His research has been published in leading academic journals including Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, Family Business Review, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Journal of Business Research, Small Business Economics, Industrial Marketing Management, Management International Review, and Journal of World Business. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Family Business Strategy, and on the editorial review boards of Family Business Review and Journal of World Business, as well as a special issue guess editor for multiple journals.

Dr. Justin B. Craig is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. Dr. Craig holds a Ph.D. in the field of behavioral science as well as a Masters of Counseling and an Honors degree in Psychology, all with an intentional focus on entrepreneurial family businesses and those responsible for their stewardship. Professor Craig’s research has been published in leading international academic journals, including the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Family Business Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Small Business Management, Small Business Economics, Journal of Family Business Strategy, and Journal of World Business, among others. He has been an Associate Editor of Family Business Review since 2010.

Karen L. Vinton, Ph.D., is a 1999 Barbara Hollander Award winner and Professor Emeritus of Business at the College of Business at Montana State University, where she founded the University’s Family Business Program. An FFI Fellow, she has served on its Board of Directors and chaired the Body of Knowledge committee. From 1997 through 2011, Vinton served on the editorial board of the Family Business Review, and is the current assistant editor. Before retiring, Vinton served as director for her own family’s business (negotiating its eventual sale)and had her own family business consulting practice, Vinton Consulting Services. Karen can be reached at klvinton700@gmail.com.

Read the review by Peter F. Eder of the World Future Society, published in the March issue of World Future Review:

Abby Kinchy, a social scientist working in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies, has taken a critical look at the emerging industry of transgenic agriculture and its impact on specific major crops. The central question addressed is as follows: “What is the right way for governments to assess and regulate genetically engineered (GE, or transgenic) organisms that will be released into the environment?”

In the agricultural biotechnology industry, there are a wide range of cultural, economic, and ethical implications that cannot simply be reduced to scientific calculations of risk. The complex issues involved have generated major conflicts over intellectual property, organic standards, genetic diversity, global trade, corporate concentration, and the maintenance of food traditions.

Click here to read more and here to see the March issue Table of Contents, including articles, interviews, book reviews and more from World Future Review.

AvoidtheStork.com

There is no doubt that humor captures people’s attention. For social marketers, who aim to change individuals’ behavior in order to achieve social good, humor can aid in effective messaging on sensitive health topics when other methods fail. Take this study from the current issue of Social Marketing Quarterly, which aimed to prevent unwanted pregnancies in young women age 18 to 30 with a campaign known as “Avoid the Stork”:

In a sample of college students (n ¼ 594), cross-sectional survey results indicated that campaign exposure and humor were significant predictors of talking with and/or showing the campaign to others. Based on our results, we suggest that campaign practitioners should consider humor-based campaigns as a way to generate not only exposure-based effects but also conversation-based effects. Specifically, humorbased campaigns can increase the reach of a campaign through sharing.

Click here to read the article, “‘Wow, That Was Funny’’: The Value of Exposure and Humor in Fostering Campaign Message Sharing” in the June issue of Social Marketing Quarterly–and stay current by signing up for e-alerts about new research from the journal.